Bone or pedicle screws and connectors for coupling portions of a spine to a framework are in wide use. Typically, a practitioner couples these screws to the bone of the spine and then couples a framework of rod-shaped elements to the screws using the connectors. The connectors generally are initially coupled to the screws before installation.
Issues with these systems include difficulty in driving and installing the screws and a tendency for the connectors to “flop around” and/or obscure the area surrounding the installation making attachment of the framework more difficult. An improved design for pedicle screw systems would reduce such difficulties for practitioners.
Pedicle screws are generally placed in the pedicles of the vertebrae, however, they are also placed in other aspects of the vertebrae, such as in the lateral masses of the cervical spine or the anterior or anterolateral aspects of the vertebral bodies in the thoracolumbar spine.